Smith's message is loud and clear for under-fire England

By Scyld Berry

12:01AM BST 10 Aug 2003

A balmy evening at a London restaurant near Lord's.

The Sunday Telegraph's cricket correspondent, Scyld Berry, convenes a panel consisting of Mike Atherton, who has recovered remarkably well from having some of the England players drowning their sorrows at his house after last week's innings defeat to South Africa; Allan Donald, who celebrated with the South Africans; Andy Flower, who has settled into his life of exile at Essex after his black armband statement in Zimbabwe during the World Cup; and Graeme Pollock, who averaged 60 in Test cricket and is now South Africa's batting consultant.

Absent from the feast is Nasser Hussain, who has enough on his plate as it is.

Berry: Before we look at how England can get out of their crisis, perhaps their worst since 1999, we should discuss how they got into it.

Pollock: Three weeks ago South African cricket was meant to be in a huge crisis after being bowled out in 32 overs in the NatWest final. England are not in a state of crisis.

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Atherton: I also don't think it's a crisis but there has been uncertainty over three key players: Alec Stewart who is going to retire, Darren Gough who has retired, and Nasser Hussain who might retire. And Michael Vaughan was thrown into the captaincy at two days' notice.

Donald: In any team you have certain players who are leadership players that the others look to. Stewart is not firing, Gough lost his bubble, so it's been difficult for the younger guys.

Pollock: I thought there was too much media hype about Jimmy Anderson in the one-day series. You pick up wickets because that's the way one-day cricket is played, and the Tests against Zimbabwe were no yard-stick.

Atherton: The bowling problem goes back a long way. If you take away those Tests against Zimbabwe, England have bowled out the opposition for less than 450 only once in the first innings of nine of their last 10 Tests.

Pollock: Andy Caddick would make a huge difference . . .

Atherton: They were bowling them out for 450-plus even when he was fit. At the moment we're hardly passing the bat or having any shouts for lbw.

Flower (ruefully): I can tell you as someone who gets pummelled quite often, it's difficult to keep buzzing when you're being hit for four an over.

Berry: Since the tour of Australia last winter I've converted to the idea that county cricket should manage without any overseas players. In the field at Lord's and Edgbaston England were like a county team waiting for their overseas fast bowler to take the lead.

Atherton: The effect of overseas players has been reflected in England's performances for the last 30 years.

Pollock: I still don't think it's a crisis because you have some good players around but what is unusual is that England seemed rudderless for session after session at Edgbaston and Lord's. I've never seen England get to that stage in the field before, they've always been able to stem the tide.

Graeme Smith puts a piece of paper above the dressing-room door and marks every session with a tick or cross according to whether South Africa have won it or not. At Lord's there was only one session which wasn't marked with a tick: the one on Saturday evening when England scored 130 for two and he put a question-mark against it.

Flower: I played a three or four-day game in Zimbabwe against England A when Michael Vaughan was captaining the side and he looked in control. Obviously, I haven't been following the series as closely as you guys but I was wondering why he didn't bowl himself at Lord's, especially a few overs at the left-handers like Smith?

Atherton: Michael's got to make himself into the second spinner. He'd at least tempt Smith to hit through the offside.

Berry (to Pollock): May I ask you as his batting consultant how England should bowl at Smith?

Atherton: Except Glenn McGrath and one or two others who go round the wicket to them and still manage to angle it towards the slips.

Berry (to Atherton): So if Vaughan resigns tomorrow, and if Nasser won't take the job back, and you are back in charge for the Trent Bridge Tests [a momentary look of horror from Atherton who had to fill in for Hussain only two years ago], how would you bowl at Smith?

Atherton: I'd attack him in the normal way at first. Then I'd ask the bowlers to bowl over the wicket about a stump or two's width outside his off-stump and the length has got to be pretty full.

Then across him, across him, across him all the time with the legside packed, and mid-off very straight, asking him to hit through extra-cover. The shot when Nasser dropped him at cover, you could see the bottom hand coming into the shot.

Flower: He came to Zimbabwe as captain of the South Africa A side last year and he was very vocal and a solid person without doubts or foibles.

You can't bowl short at him and you can't bowl straight at him because he's very strong. So yes, bowl across him but keep him honest with the occasional inswinger.

Atherton: When Anderson got him at Lord's he was just starting to reverse the ball away from Smith.

Berry (to Pollock): His stance is a bit similar to yours, isn't it, with the bat between his feet?

Pollock: Balance is the biggest factor of all in batting and if you're tall you've got to stretch out.

Donald: He's an immensely passionate guy. When we went to Morocco last August, I think he got left out after the first game and his only wish was to become a permanent member of the side.

Pollock: All over the dressing-room at Lord's he put these messages saying: 'Who wants to get on to this board?' Only about 10 visiting bowlers have taken 10 wickets in a Test there, and now Makhaya Ntini has done it.

Donald: I overheard him on the stump mike when England were eight or nine wickets down, he was shouting at Herschelle Gibbs at long-on. That's the difference in intensity between sides. It was the same with Hansie Cronje - however well we'd done he wanted us to up the intensity in the next session, and Smith is even more like that.

Pollock: In the Sixties the best batsman was the one who put away the bad balls. In the nets you've got to practise putting away the long-hops and full tosses and he does that. I think he'll hold every South African batting record in 10 or 15 years.

Atherton: Ever since he hit a six at Edgbaston I've noticed how he watches the ball right on to the bat with eyes wide. Most of us give a sort of blink.

Pollock: When South Africa came back into Test cricket everybody said the intensity would be short-lived but I haven't seen anyone with the loyalty and discipline of South African sportsmen.

Berry (to Flower): What was Nasser like at Essex during the one-day series?

Flower: He was extremely determined about his personal form. He didn't get any runs at first so he upped his intensity in practice then he got that double-hundred. No sign of mental staleness - all I saw was a hungry, determined cricketer.

Pollock: Nasser has made a tremendous contribution to English cricket but the timing of his resignation didn't help.

Flower: He obviously didn't fancy spending the rest of the summer reading press speculation about when he was going to retire.

Atherton: In England traditionally players have gone on a bit too long. In Australia they cut you dead.

Berry: What's going to happen to Alec Stewart?

Atherton: I think they feel he's still the best wicketkeeper-batsman and he'll play until The Oval unless the series is lost at Headingley. Even then, knowing Duncan Fletcher, they'll probably let Stewie have a grand farewell at The Oval.

Berry (to Flower): How's James Foster been doing at Essex? It didn't seem to do him any favours when he was promoted to No 3. He seems to be like Jack Russell by nature, a defender and counter-attacker at No 7.

Flower: In England the one area where you are well blessed is wicketkeeping. There's Foster, whose keeping has come a long way since last year. Batting at No 3 didn't work for him, and he lost confidence as a result, but it wasn't the wrong move at the time.

Then there's Chris Read, and the two wicketkeepers at Sussex, and Geraint Jones at Kent is a very talented ball-player with a nice balance between attack and defence as a batsman, although he needs to do specialist work to work out what suits his wicketkeeping.

Atherton: Can somebody like that make himself into a top keeper?

Flower: Yes.

Atherton: Then pick the guy who's most likely to make Test hundreds.

The conversation drifts off on the evening air into a discussion about the reverse-sweep and its premeditated nature, as Pollock picks Flower's brains, until . . .

Berry: And what, gentlemen, is the result of this series going to be?

Donald: Everyone knows what happened in '98 (when England came from behind to win 2-1). It's easy to come to Lord's and play above yourself.

Flower: I wish I knew what it was like . . .

Donald: The word as I left the South African dressing-room was: 'Today let's enjoy ourselves, tomorrow we'll be humble again.' Two-nil to South Africa.

Pollock: With Jacques Kallis back and Boucher and Pollock at seven and eight, England will find it difficult to bowl South Africa out twice. Two-one to South Africa.

Atherton: There's a twist in this tale to come but - 2-1 to South Africa.